Monday, October 16, 2006

Pay no mind to that 6-1 Big Ten team

BlogPoll voters, allow me to exhort you: be unto the Badgers as the national voters. Yea, in their wisdom, the AP and the Coaches have seen fit to rank the Badgers at #21 and #22, respectively. This is a position that suits the Badgers, a 6-1 team that has played one bad half of football all year.

Yeah, you could point at PJ Hill and exclaim, "this man is second in the NCAA in rushing yardage, gaining over 1000 yards and creating 11 scores, and there are still six games to go!" Or you could look at their record and say, "Why, they're already bowl eligible, and they still have to play five more regular-season games!" Or maybe you might notice that Wisconsin is leading the Big Ten in scoring, garnering 33.9 points per game. You could even look at the fact that UW is only allowing 12.7 points per game, and that the only time they ceded over 20 points was when they visited what the AP poll is calling the #2 team in the nation.

But why would you do that? Surely, the AP has it right; the Badgers, at #21, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the Boise States and Rutgerses of the worlds. They simply don't have the marquee losses like Oregon (by 21 to Cal) and Notre Dame (by 26 to Michigan ... the Badgers only have a 14-point loss upon which to hang their hats!) And you certainly shouldn't rank Wisconsin higher than Iowa ... after all, they lost to Indiana, and we only beat the Hoosiers by five touchdowns.

So, BlogPoll voters, don't waste your credibility; do the right thing and follow the lead of the brilliant voters in the AP and Coaches polls.

Here are my rankings, FWIW. Point out my mistakes ... EDIT: Mistakes have been pointed out. I have come around to the idea that LSU is not top ten material, but that forced me to put a very non-top-ten-worthy team, Louisville, in their stead. This displeases me, but whatever. I also dropped the Badgers one spot, but that's as low as I'm going. Reasoning: I think the Badgers would beat everyone below them. Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, and West Virginia would get chewed up and spit out by PJ Hill, and the defense would bring the pain on Quinn, bottle up Johnson, and stone Slaton.

Also, LSU at 9 is absurd. You can use your logic and those of the other commenters on that one. Who's their marquee win? They didn't even look good in their losses. Arkansas ripped apart Auburn but supposedly mighty LSU managed a whole 7?

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really? texas move up 4 after beating baylor(2-4)? wisconsin up 7 for beating minnie(2-5)? west virginia down 12 for beating an equally subpar team(syr 3-4)? Notre Dame down 5 for a bye week? I really can't find much reasoning in your poll. fine, you are a bit of a wisconsin homer, can't really fault a fan for that. however the others just seem to be moving around randomly. If you are big on m.o.v., then why not toss more love to west virginia and louie too? I'll be curious to see this weekend if notre dame ends up beating UCLA in similar fashion as oregon did if you will move them up seven spots as well.